The Armour Archive

raito

Heat red with a torch, let cool or quench in water (both work, quenching lets you get back to whacking on it sooner). For what you're doing. anything more exact is overkill.

raito

Baron Eirik wrote:The name of the female marshal escapes at the moment.

Mistress Alinor of Braeford, but probably not Mistress quite then.

raito

Not that I'd advocate doing plastic splints, but if it were me... Set the oven to 225. Get a piece of 3" black pipe (or a few, if you can fit them into the oven). Put plastic over the pipe. When the plastic sags down around the pipe, pull the pipe out (with the plastic on it), and run cold wate...

raito

Not much fighting going on in LaCrosse. Best bet for a regular practice right now would be Rochester MN (which is a bit of a haul). The groups in River Falls or Eau Claire have fighters, but I'm not sure how regular their practices are. Tomah doesn't really have much fighting happening currently. No...

raito

Mongo,

I thought you were a Pel?

(I use a railroad tie, sunk into the ground.)

raito

All of our sword techniques can affect your shoulder. Punch techniques should be very minimal in that regard, so long as you have some flex in the elbow through contact. ... And assuming your punching mechanics are good. I see a lot of people trying to do this sort of thing with their hand outside ...

raito

Barrel HDPE is rather unsuitable for the task, as it tends to want to go back to its barrel-like shape, not matter what (unless you take truly extraordinary measures muck akin to recycling).

raito

For me, it's all mental. By the time Crown rolls around, either I have technique, or I do not. There isn't time to learn any new technique. All I'm trying to do is to put a razor edge on what I already have. That said, I find that a month or so of fighting my best fight, and keeping score, does wond...

raito

And yet, I've been wearing the same sort of helmet for 25 years or so, and never had a problem getting it to pass.

raito

You don't need to thicken ferric chloride. You can use a brush with it very easily, as it has some surface tension. It shouldn't be a problem.

raito

Plugged this into google (from one of the video titles): Дмитровский штурм Looked at a translation of the first few hits. It was mostly about how many people went to the hospital, and blaming it on guys w...

raito

Francisco Lopez de Leon wrote:Anyone hung out the old armoured pig carcass and tried this with sharps?

Caracasses are not a good substitute for living tissue. For just a single example, dead bones are a lot more brittle than living bones.

raito

I find the comment on pommels interesting, as I've really never had a pommel on any of my swords, ever, in more than 30 years. And I've never had a problem with the lack of a pommel being why a sword slips my grip. As for the rules, they're definitely against basketless swords. Is the basket part of...

raito

And if you score some, the first thing to do is to grind the signage off them. In one apartment I lived in years ago, the police climbed into the enclosed patio to take away my stash of legally acquired, decommissioned signage. I got it back, but it was quite a pain, even though I had a receipt, and...

raito

I do not use baskets (never have), do not shape my grips (ever), and I do not have your problems. As has been said, the gauntlets are the key. Ugly round things that don't let your hand up near the guard suck. You'll never get good feel from the weapon, and your hand is not guarded. Make sure your g...

raito

Ah, well, how plans change. AEsa and I will be missing Gulf this year. Just found out today. Too bad, I really like going there. -1 that is not cool =[ well i know Sir Vargas and I will hope to catch you at Pennsic =] I'll miss seeing you guys, but no Pennsic, either. But you guys could come up to ...

raito

Ah, well, how plans change. AEsa and I will be missing Gulf this year. Just found out today. Too bad, I really like going there.

raito

(with humor) 1 - Crown Rounds: AKA, I think I'm good enough. Or, What's it actually like in the deep end? 2 - Training Rounds: AKA, I'm not good enough, can you tell me what I need? 3 - Teaching: AKA, I don't think I'm far enough to ask yet. Also, the day is broken into three sections with classes t...

raito

Hmm, Randy's site works fine in Firefox, but not in IE (my corporate overloards require obesiance to Redmond). Strange.

raito

Since Jamie has said no, and plasma is probably not so good for this, I'll mention Randy at: http://drgnfly4g.com/ He did some brass laser cutting for me last spring. I've dealt with him a few times, and been satisfied. I think he contracts the cutting out, but I've never been sure about that. He se...

raito

AEsa and I will be there Sun. - Sat. Camping on the Northshield triangle, most likely. Hanging around the NS cabin in the corral a lot, too. I'll probably be flying my own colors in battle (blue square spiral in a circle on black). Look for the samurai carrying the cutest baby who is not Mara. Jayme...

raito

Hi all, Sha-ul: Both my shears still have the name plates, and I do know that the one with the hold down is the B-3. I just couldn't for the life of me remember which ones I had while I was at work (and you'd think I'd be able to remember something like that). But thanks for the help. Frederick: Yep...

raito

I'll have to look at my shears (I have 2, and I'm at work right now.). If one of them's a B-1, then sold! (really, I can't remember if I have a 1 and 2 or a 2 and 3).

And since I see you regularly, there's no need to ship if you don't want to. Paypal is no problem.

raito

I haven't made as much mail as some here, but I have done a couple butted hauberks. What worked best for me was to close a bunch of links and open as many. Then I'd put 4 closed on one open and close the open link. Do that until it gets boring, Then I'd take 4 of those 5 link thingys, and link them ...

raito

I guess you'd say that my interests are a bell curve, centering around later period Japanese. As has been said, it's good to be well-rounded, and I help other people with their stuff, which is usually not Japanese.

raito

Btw, Welder mentioned that what he proposes would not be a matter for "hanging out, drinking beer with fighter buddies." I, for one, sometimes found that hanging out and drinking beer (or single malt, for that matter) with friends to be really rather good for the soul on occasion. Mord. H...

raito

I've unquoted the questions. Answers are solely based on my experiences. Is it fun for non-fighters? Sub-question: Will I need other activities going on beside the Pas? If so, what? It can be more fun for non-fighters, because non-fighters generally need something to cleanse their plaettes between b...

raito

I'm not suggesting a relaxation in safety standards at all. Do I understand you to say that the question of who judges whether an action is a valid, scoring blow is a safety concern ? Isn't the marshal already the final arbiter of safety on the field? Let me be clear, I'm only asking that the comba...

raito

Actually, you may note that I said I watched more rapier than heavy. Yes, you did. But you also watched armoured combat. As I do more armoured than rapier (though I do both), my reply was skewed towards that. Actually, I would offer your own advice to you in return. All of my points are pretty plai...

raito

You may wish to research the form and function of duels. Many of your points make little sense to me. You were watching armoured combat. A fully-armoured man is difficult to kill. If it were to be unarmoured combat, there were many duels where only death was not the ending condition. Ever hear of 'f...

raito

I used to have time, now I have a baby.

raito

I *am* getting the loops on the underside (bobbin side) occasionally. I'm not sure how to adjust the tension. Could that also be causing the thread to break? Absolutely. The ideal machine stitch has the upper and lower threads looping around each other in the center of the fabric. If loops are comi...

raito

I have never encountered a physical, technical, or mental problem in a woman training to fight that I have not also seen in a man.

raito

Not so good on the period side, but I've used electrical conduit to good effect, especially when making many shields. It's cheap, you get a bunch of handled from a single piece, and it's easy to heave the middle round, then hammer the ends flat and bend them to make the handle whatever height you ne...

raito

Well, I did a 13, so I ignored the curve of the 14. I don't find it too good looking on me. I have some gut, so a globose of proper length makes me look really fat, because the bottom of the BP is at my largest point, and the most globular curve is above that.

Re: What goes into a Pas d'Armes?